In this week’s #DWHStories, we cover the #DeepwaterHorizon oil spill response. Next week I will spend some time on the role of volunteers in the response, both official and unofficial. #oilspill #gulfofmexico #dwhoilspill Thread 1/
The coast was largely quiet in the week following the rig explosion. Initial official reports indicated that only a small amount of oil was leaking, and that the well would be contained in a short period of time, before causing extensive environmental damage.
The Coast Guard sent a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) to the wellhead site to try to cap the well & determine whether the wellhead and/or the broken pipes were still leaking oil. Initial discharge estimates indicated that the well could be leaking approximately 1000 barrels a day.
On 4/24/10, the USCG reported that the wellhead was indeed leaking. On 4/29/10, the federal government broadcast a major shift in their assessment of the spill- it was now considered a “spill of national significance"-- much more oil was leaking than was previously estimated.
These initial days of confusion and shifting narratives about the magnitude of the spill set a negative tone for the initial disaster response, breeding mistrust with the public as oil discharge estimates differed from one day to the next. People began to get scared. And mad
BP’s CEO at the time, Tony Hayward, did little to alleviate these concerns. He seemed to have a special talent for making insensitive remarks to the press, like “I would like my life back,” which further inflamed public sentiment.
Hayward’s verbal missteps were shared and amplified on social media platforms— the DWH spill was one of the first major disasters to unfold in the era of social media & many people turned to Twitter and Facebook to gain and share information about the spill and response.
Here are some good, peer-reviewed articles about the #dwh oil spill and social media.
link.springer.com/chapter/10.105…
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…
link.springer.com/chapter/10.105…
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…
As is the case with many national disasters, the Govt's response to the oil spill was governed by the Incident Command System (ICS). The ICS provides a structure for multiple responders at the local, state & federal levels to work together efficiently & effectively.
ICS is a military structure at its heart, & has been used with relative success for decades. It is rigid but understandable and is supposed to be imminently scaleable to respond to any type of disaster. The DWH response was the largest disaster event to utilize the system.
To wit: Incident Commander, U.S.C.G. Admiral Thad Allen, underscored the complexity of mobilizing tens of thousands of people and equipment across five states, saying that the #DWH response had more in common with the Apollo 13 mission than it did to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
One oil spill response doc is know as the the Area Contingency Plan (ACP). Each plan covers a certain geographic area and describes the people, equipment and process to be utilized to respond to an oil spill, & contains an index of environmentally sensitive areas to be protected.
As oil moved closer to shore, it quickly became apparent that many local and state officials were not familiar with the ACP, which caused wrinkles in the response. Since the spill, the USCG has worked to encourage greater local engagement in the ACP process -- a positive outcome.
In addition to working to prevent oil from coming to shore with boom, dispersants were applied at unprecedented volumes to break up the oil before it reached the shore.
The practice of utilizing dispersants at the surface of the water was controversial enough, and the debate only grew as the call was made to apply dispersants at the wellhead, too, nearly a mile below the surface. More about deep sea application here: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108…
There are no good clean-up options for oil spills. Although the technology for deepwater drilling has advanced significantly, clean-up technology has not. Burning, skimming and dispersants were still the best tools in the box during DWH, just as they had been for Exxon Valdez.
After major oil spills, the Coast Guard completes a report called the Incident Specifc Preparedness Review to evaluate the response process and the effectiveness of response plans. Did you know: 48,200 responded to the oil spill!
The DWH report, completed in 2011, identified a number of areas for improvement, including the mobilization of assets, engagement with stakeholders and the public where things could have gone more smoothly. hsdl.org/?view&did=7347
Finally, here's a great paper about science support during the spill, coauthored by two of the Govt science leads (& personal science heroes of mine) for the spill response, @Marcia4Science & @JaneLubchenco tinyurl.com/wnv9moy
